Differences between tourists in photographing and photo‐sharing behaviours have been under‐researched. We examined the influence of geographic origin and travel group composition on tourist photographing and sharing. Questionnaires were used to measure photographing and sharing frequency, while participant observation afforded a deeper examination of sharing processes. Findings showed differences in photography behaviour between solo and accompanied tourists. Tourists from some continents also took and shared photographs more frequently. Observations uncovered processes connecting sharing, photographing, and content of photographs. As user‐generated content becomes increasingly influential in tourism management, attention to origin, group composition and other individual differences can help engage tourists in photographing and sharing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Over the past years, there has been increasing public criticism of international volunteering. Yet, the academic literature has so far given limited insight into the diversity of this complex and ‘liquid’ field. To fill this gap, this article develops a taxonomy of volunteering providers with different goals and behaviours. The value of this new taxonomy is illustrated by applying the analytical framework to ‘orphanage tourism’ in the Netherlands. The study highlights the differential impact of public criticism on orphanage tourism, with a catalysing effect on the trend of informalisation towards increasing prominence of smaller nonspecialist development‐oriented providers in this field.